TRIVIA TIDBITS

Hello again my fellow bloggers. Some time has now passed since Tuesday’s Trivia Tidbits has featured here and I’d now like to announce it’s long-awaited return. You may notice that I’ve changed the title by omitting the day it would normally be posted. Time has been eating my arse of late and I want to take the pressure off a little by not having to keep to a specific day. Hopefully it can remain (mostly) on Tuesday’s but it should appear either way, give or take a day.
For those of you out of the loop, this is a little compilation of 10 movie related facts that I always find interesting. So without further ado, this weeks are…

1: Indiana Jones was inspired by real-life academic and adventurer, Hiram Bingham III, who rediscovered Machu Piccu in 1911. Bingham’s book “Lost City Of The Incas” led to the Charlton Heston movie “Secret Of The Incas“, which, in turn, led to Indy.

2: According to director Derek Cianfrance, he met with Ryan Gosling at his agent’s home in 2007 while working on “Blue Valentine“. Apparently he asked Gosling what in life, he would want to do that he hadn’t already. Gosling responded that he has always wanted to rob a bank but didn’t want to get arrested. Cinafrance then asked how he would go about it. Gosling then described how he would rob a bank on a motorcycle because it is fast and agile, and the helmet would conceal his identity, then stashing the motorcycle in the back of a truck because the police would be looking for the motorcycle. Cianfrance them responded that he was actually writing a screenplay about a bank robber in exactly that way, and he felt that Gosling was meant to play this role. These are the events that led to “The Place Beyond The Pines“.

3: For her widely panned performance in “The Godfather part III“, Sofia Coppola not only “won” two Razzie Awards (for Worst Supporting Actress and Worst New Star) but also set a new record for the percentage of votes received by any actor up to that point in Golden Raspberry Awards history. In a field of five contenders, she took over 65% of Razzie members’ votes in both categories.

4: To make himself look like an average out of shape middle aged man in “Cast Away“, Tom Hanks didn’t exercise and allowed himself to grow pudgy. Production was then halted for a year so he could lose fifty pounds and grow out his hair for his time spent on the deserted island. During this hiatus, Robert Zemeckis used the same crew to film “What Lies Beneath“.

5: In “Gangs Of New York“, Bill the Butcher (played by Daniel Day-Lewis) is a great opposer of Abraham Lincoln and in one scene he’s seeing throwing a knife on a picture of the president. Ironically, Day-Lewis would later play “Lincoln” in Steven Spielberg’s film of the same name.

6: In Baz Luhrmann’s “The Great Gatsby“, Ben Affleck was considered for the role of Tom Buchanan, but dropped out due to scheduling conflicts. After Affleck dropped out, Bradley Cooper and Luke Evans were considered before Joel Edgerton was eventually cast.

7: Before the publication of “The Andromeda Strain“, author Michael Crichton had written under many pseudonyms. One of these was Michael Douglas. The actor Michael Douglas would be directed by Crichton in “Coma” and go on to play a role in “Disclosure“, one of Crichton’s novels

8: An early title for Terry Gilliam’s “Brazil” was “1984 and a 1/2”, an ode to Federico Fellini and “8½“, but the film “Nineteen Eighty-Four” was released and the idea was scrapped, as there would have been legal trouble with the George Orwell estate.

9: While filming “The Score” Marlon Brando took to calling director Frank Oz, “Fozzy” and “Miss Piggy” during the movie. Oz is the voice of Fozzy Bear and Miss Piggy characters in “The Muppets“. Brando’s hazing of Oz over his work with the Muppets got so bad that Robert DeNiro was forced to direct Brando instead, with Oz giving him instructions via headset.

10: As a guest on “Inside the Actors Studio” (Oct. 2, 2006), Al Pacino recounted to host James Lipton how he’d had an embarrassing moment in a crowded elevator after winning his first Oscar for “Scent Of A Woman“. Unbeknownst to Pacino, was that the head of his statuette was poking a well-known actress in her posterior. When she turned around, Pacino quickly explained that his Oscar, not he, was to blame for her discomfort.

So there you have it. 10 esoteric Tidbits to masticate on. Some you may know. Some you may not. If you have any thoughts, stick your donations in the comment box.
See you next week…

51 Responses to “TRIVIA TIDBITS”

That’s a few times you’ve proclaimed “the best one yet!” I’ll remember that you’re a Leto fan for future posts. Gutted, I didn’t quite fill the whole card for you but I will in future. I hope Carly is happy to see it return too? A little gift for her and baby Carter 😉

You just keep topping your previous bests, so I have to keep you updated!! Look forward to the full card one day. I’ll make sure Carly knows, she will be thrilled. Although she loves Leto as much as me (yet didnt go to jelly like I did when we met him!) 🙂

I’ve always been a fan of his acting (and have a slight man crush on him). Then I heard his band were playing in a pub near us years and years ago, so when it finished we waited behind to meet them. Now the band are pretty huge, and it’s great and I still love their music (Carly walked down the aisle to an acoustic number of theirs) so he has always been a big deal to us. 🙂

Thanks Chris! Glad to hear you’re happy about its return and even more pleased that you think this was still up to standard. It won’t always make it for Tuesday’s anymore, as I’m too busy to commit to that just now, but they will be regular.

Thank you sir! It was a pleasure doing it all again. I’m refusing to stick to a specific day for them now, though. It takes the pressure off and keeps it enjoyable. And yes, Sofia did deserve her awards 😉

Brazil… yea!!! One of my top 10 movies. The book The Battle of Brazil by Jack Mathews is a must read for any cinephile. While the name 1984 and a 1/2 was bandied about, Gilliam never actually read Orwell’s book. His first draft of the script was titled The Ministry of Torture, or Brazil or How I Learned to Live with the System – So Far.

Some of the bizarre names suggested by the Universal were:

If Osmosis, Who Are You?
Some Day Soon
Vortex
Day Dreams and Night Tripper
What a Future!
Litterbugs
The Works
Skylight City
You Show Me Your Dream…
Access
Arresting Developments
Nude Descending Bathroom Scale
Lords of the Files
Dreamscape
The Staplegunners
Progress
Forever More
The Right to Bear Arms
Explanada Fortunata Is Not My Real Name
All Too Soon
Chaos
Where Were We?
Disconnected Parties
Blank/Blank
Erotic
Shadow Time
Maelstrom
Forces of Darkness
The Man in the Custom Tailored T-shirt
Fold, Spindle, Mutilate
Can’t Anybody Here Play the Cymbals?
Sign on High
The Ball Bearing Electro Memory Circuit Buster
This Escalator Doesn’t Stop At Your Station
Gnu Yak, Gnu Yak, and Other Bestial Places

Also Gilliam’s stationary had the company name PooPooPictures with a hunchback character nude from the waist down with a feathered arrow sticking out of his ass climbing a piece of film strip that looks like a ladder. This was on all of his correspondence with the studio. He just thought it’d be funny to see the studio brass sitting around talking about PooPooPictures looking at that character. LOL.

That’s quite a list of potential titles for the film. Most of them are great as well. I particularly like The Man in the Custom Tailored T-Shirt. Hilarious stuff about PooPoo Pictures and that little logo you describe actually rings a bell. I think I’ve seen that before. Can’t remember where, though.

Thanks for commenting, man. Especially with such great info that I didn’t know about. 🙂

Mark, do yourself a favor and DON’T Google PooPooPictures… for obvious reasons… “oh the horror”… lol. Also the logo isn’t on the internets as far as I can tell.

I’ll give you one more tidbit since you like Mr. De Niro so much. De Niro being the perfectionist that he is he brought his own toolbelt with all the gadgets on it for the small part of rogue repairman Tuttle. Gilliam and his crew were excited to have De Niro on board at first, but as time wore on they found De Niro’s need for “research” and obsession with details increasingly irritating, saying that he “wanted to strangle him”. I wonder if Marty ever wanted to strangle him?

Love that you have your faves Bobby DeNiro trivia here, and also on Ryan Gosling (which as you know I’m not keen on). That is a cool trivia though about him wanting to rob a bank, ahah. WOW, that’s an awesome trivia on Crichton, I had no idea he’s also a director and he chose Douglas’ name as pseudonym, ahah. I think I read in one of your trivia too that Michael Keaton’s original surname is also Douglas right, but he had to change it obviously, as there’s already a famous actor w/ the same name 😀

It’s Trivia time again Ruth. Although, not always on Tuesdays as I’m so busy these days. But it’s back regardless on what day it gets posted.

Yeah, as you would expect, DeNiro will make an appearance here and there 😉
The Michael Crichton story was new to me too. I knew he was a director but had no idea about his pseudonym being Douglas. And yes, Michael Keaton’s real surname is Douglas too. He’s the only original Michael Douglas, though. 😉

Brando is such a good actor but if does seem that he proved to be one of the most difficult to work with. I hear Val Kilmer is the same and it would have been interesting to see them together behind the scenes on The Island of Dr Moreau.

Sofia was pretty awful wasn’t she? hahaha.
Something I read earlier that interested me was Natalie Portman refused to play an emotionally conflicted nun in ‘Doubt’ because she didn’t “understand celibacy”.

Weird haha. I suppose she regrets it now since Amy Adams took over the role and got nominated for it.

Hi Mark, its great that you have at number one the biggest rip-off of all time in cinema history. Indiana Jones was cloned from the gringo Harry Steele, played by Charlton Heston in SECRET OF THE INCAS. There are also several scenes from the Heston movie that crop up in the first two Indy adventures.

Hey James, thanks for dropping in man. I admittedly haven’t seen Secret of the Incas ( not a big Heston fan, to be honest) but I was aware that Indy wasn’t an original idea. It is a rip-off, but a damn good one all the same. Cheers bro!